An older title arriving to Screambox (a decade after its release), this 2014 Hungarian foreign language film that has the honor of being Hungary’s first official feature length, found footage horror movie delves into history and a true crime: one of the darkest unsolved mysteries in Finland. Bodom attempts to take us back to the past, re-opening the cold case from 1960 of three teenagers beaten and stabbed to death in their tents, leaving only one survivor and no suspects ever discovered. The film gives us a bare bones background on the murders, so you might have to do a little research on the crimes, like I did, if you want a better picture. Directed and written by Gergö Elekes and József Gallai, with aid on the script from Bence Kovács (who also stars), the three attempt a compact found footage piece that will untangle the web of the past and give us a glimpse into the time which two journalists spent fixated on the decades-old killings.
Opening with a clicking typewriter giving a brief description of the crime, we are hit with a slurry of old footage, photos, and newer images of evidence and briefings on the cases on display. We are told that in winter of 2009 two media students, Annikki Jokinen (Vivien Turzó) and Pietari Niskala (Bence Kovács) have chosen the crime as the subject of their thesis. One of Annikki’s lecturers, Kaisa (Zsuzsanna Rednik), says she was excited and immediately approved the topic, but was wary of Pietari being partnered with Annikki, as well as Annikki’s growing obsession over the case. As the testimonials continue, we see Annikki was growing more secretive, especially after scoring an interview with the sole survivor of the attacks: however, only the audio of this interview would be recovered.
The interview begins normally on a screen showing sound levels, though the interviewee seems a bit hostile and only offers the pair ten minutes of his time. They ask if he remembers the events of that day, and the man begins to point out what I believe are scars on his body, stab wounds he survived. As he dives deeper into his memory, he reaches a breaking point and begins to shout that there have been more disappearances in those woods, and it’s not over yet. They cut the recording through his guttural cries that “it’s not over.” More testimonials follow as Pietari’s brother and Kaisa say he was just drifting at the time of the thesis, not interested in the topic but floating along with Annikki’s current. We finally cut to some footage of the pair, preparing for a rickety airplane ride followed by a car trip to get to their remote destination of Espoo. The filming is interrupted by another testimony, describing the pair’s travel plans, the car they rented, and that they drove no more than thirty-seven kilometers total before the car was found abandoned, nine kilometers outside of town.
The pair bicker and chat in the car on their way to town, commenting on the foul weather and the beautiful countryside, and we see as they drive that Annikki is warming up to the idea of filming everything, actually Pietari’s idea, and she is now interested in the personal touch their own film could create. As Pietari discusses his past interview pitches, including his idea to interview a dying child, another testimonial breaks in, letting us in to the fact that Annikki was raised in an orphanage until she was eighteen and it caused her some social stress. She was always a bit distant and this strange footage and occurrence at Bodom seems to have made her mysterious life even more cloudy. Back in the car, Annikki discusses her admiration for the outdoors, while Pietari still seems dismissive and says he hates the cold and the woods, things that brings Annikki peace, like her fondness for hiking. After a long drive the two make it to their house, isolated and deep in the snowy woods, with only two days to get what they came here for.
You’ll have to be ready for a slow ride. Bodom itself is only just over an hour long but it takes nearly the entire film, up until the final twenty minutes, to finally get things exciting. Most of our beginning is bickering, which does go on for quite some time and can grate on the nerves, almost like you’re in the car with the two. During the ordeal we see Annikki influenced into a trance-like state, receive a wrapped object referred to as “the rattler” (what this could refer to I’m not sure), revealing that occurrences like the strange object appearing have been happening to her for a year now. While the script may not have that much compelling to keep you interested in their conversations, the performances are solid considering what they have to work with. However, even as things pick up in the story and all these revelations come to light, it still feels like key details to the duo’s work as well as the mystery of the Bodom murders get lost.
Most direction and camera work are well done, setting up the found footage tricks, taking unique angles, taking us to night vision later on, and cutting several times as though equipment were malfunctioning, consistently reminding us who’s holding the camera. Testimonials will interrupt you well into the first half hour of this and picks up again towards the conclusion, leaving only a small portion of pure found footage to enjoy; and while I know it’s expositional in order to explain what happened and give us more backstory on Annikki and Pietari personally, they become a bit of a nuisance as you continually wait for the actual found footage portion of this found footage film to begin, hoping they will start showing us instead of telling us. Overall, Bodom is not a bad watch, but it is a slow one, with a payoff coming in the final act after some plodding plot work. Though Bodom is a solid, short watch chronicling a true crime mystery, I sadly still felt just as distant from the case by the end as I did in the beginning, so keep your eyes glued, or you could miss a key detail or secret.
Crawling on to more streaming services this month, you can set aside a little more than an hour for an apparent historic found footage selection with some solid characters and a surprising conclusion. Now available on Screambox, you can join the pair on their journey to uncover their take on what killed the children of Bodom.
Bodom (2014) is available now on Screambox.